Traveling by wagon

Our next-door neighbor Jeremy gave us a big wagon that his kids used to use, and we used it to drop off Mommy at her dance class.

As you might have expected, Jory insists on helping to drive the wagon!

Pre-Halloween costumes

Kids are really cute when they're dressed up (especially in pictures, when you have no idea what was actually going on while the picture was being taken).

We know it's not Halloween yet, but we've given Jory some pre-Halloween costume time.

Here he is driving the car, which is one of the scariest things I can think of. This is his cape from last year's Assistant Professor Chaos costume.

And here he is in his real Halloween outfit, which glows:

The foreshortening of the skeleton image contrasts a bit oddly with his huge head, but what are you going to do?

Counterpoint: foodie

An earlier post on this blog may have led you to the conclusion that Jory has a refined palate. Allow me to present photographic evidence to the contrary:

As you can see, he was really working those toes!

At least he's happy!

Short trip to Santa Cruz

We recently took a short weekend trip for a retreat near Santa Cruz. After making it really hard for us to get on the road, Jory promptly fell asleep in a position that looked so uncomfortable that I held his head up most of the way.

Unfortunately it was a bit damp to spend much time outside, so Jory spent a lot of time with the pumpkin display in the main hall of the resort.

We took our second-least-exciting hike ever:

Had some kisses:

And then on the way home, Jory hoodwinked us into buying him this enormous "busy zoo." How could we resist that smile?

Unfortunately, Jory went completely berserk when KC dragged him away from the toy so I could pay for it. I've got an MP3 of what ensued, but fortunately for you I can't figure out how to post it. You're welcome.

Go Cardinal!

As you can see, Jory takes his football very seriously:

  

Seriously enough that at the last game he rifled through a Coach purse (that did not belong to Mommy), tried to grab some guy's burger out of his mouth, ate a shocking number of garlic fries, and threw his toy boat into some ketchup in the row in front of us. Mommy ended up watching the end of a very tense game on TV in the stadium shop, while Jory played with the Stanford-themed stuffed trees and Hello Kitties.

It's exhausting being a fan! 

To the ice!

Over the weekend, Jory helped his dear Auntie Jessa (who was present at his birth) pack for her upcoming adventure in Antarctica!

Jory examined her special NSF luggage tags:

And modeled mommy's beanie, which Auntie is taking South - it's already been in the North:

We're going to miss Auntie Jessa very much, but we're incredibly proud of her! On to the ice!

Don't forget to follow Jessa's adventures on her blog - just click here!

Pool boy

Another great birthday present for Jory was a little inflatable pool, perfect for the front yard. Up until last week it was still quite warm here, so we left the pool inflated and filled.

Jory and I were playing in the front yard one afternoon, and this happened:

Obviously I did nothing to stop any of this. I also did not manage to stop him from eating most of a leaf from the pool. What can I say? I just live here.

He was having a great time, after all ... and it's not like he was clean getting into the pool anyway. So after Jory's fully clothed dip in the front-yard pool, we went and had a nice warm bath!

Hiking with Daddy

Now that we've got a proper hiking backpack for Jory, the two Huang men have been hitting the trails around the peninsula.

Birthday boy!

Believe it or not, we've all survived Jory's first year! We threw him a party on his birthday that turned out really well.

Of course, Jory napped through the first hour of his party, and then he seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the people (and the chickens ... yes, there were chickens). But he became more and more cheery as the day went on!

Jory got some really great gifts in addition to all the attention:

It's hard to believe he's the same boy from a year ago!